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“The rose quartz represents compassion, especially toward yourself. The moonstone is for embracing new beginnings without needing every answer first. The clear quartz (in my opinion, the strongest stone on our wonderful Earth) is a reminder to return to your intentions whenever doubt gets loud. Dear Primavera1959, wear this bracelet while you practice asking for what you want with honesty and receiving what is offered with curiosity.”

There.

She’s asking for permission to hope, and I think I can give that to her.

CHAPTER 5

MERRYWEATHER

It’s four-thirty on Friday afternoon, and I have opened the same spreadsheet more times than I’m willing to admit while absorbing zero percent of its content.

This is not entirely my fault. The Robin’s Eggs forecast document has seventeen tabs, four color-coded scenarios, and enough formulas to power a small engine.

Helena sent it to me shortly after I arrived upstairs this morning, along with the very vague, extremely ambiguous instruction to “clean it up,” which is the sort of direction my boss gives when she doesn’t know what she wants but would like someone else to be responsible for reading her mind.

So far, I’ve made sure all fonts matched, fixed the date formatting, and spent twenty minutes wondering whether “clean it up” means removing the comments where Vanessa, the brand director, repeatedly wrote WHAT IS THIS NUMBER and ??? all over.

I suspect it does. Although I could be entirely wrong, because I’m not a mind reader.

The office has emptied out slowly around me as people leave for the weekend. From my desk outside Helena’s office, I can hear the muted rise and fall of her voice through the closed door.

She has been on the phone for nearly an hour, and I’m both scared for what my Friday evening could look like but also feel infinitely sorry for the person on the other end of the line. I have considered leaving twice, but unfortunately I enjoy receiving a paycheck a little too much.

My phone buzzes beside my keyboard.

I glance at the screen, expecting another message from Hell, despite the fact that she is currently sitting twelve feet away from me.

Instead, I see a Whisp notification.

Your order has shipped.

Directly beneath it:

You have a new message from The Third Fairy.

Every muscle in my body tightens.

Nope. No thank you.

I turn the phone face down. This is ridiculous. It’s simply an online order, Merryweather. You get these every day without assuming an unseen force has begun rearranging your romantic life. For all you know, it’s your cat’s food.

The elevator dings at the end of the hall and voices approach.

I click back into the spreadsheet and arrange my face into what I hope looks like focused professionalism instead of a desperate woman actively avoiding correspondence from an internet witch.

“Hello, Merryweather,” Veronica says from behind me.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

Dani appears on the other side of my desk carrying an iced coffee and a paper bag that looks suspiciously like she raided the chocolate cabinet on her floor. Veronica stands beside her, wearing a visitor badge from the product testing lab downstairs, even though she doesn’t require one to go in since it’s her job.

“What is that?”

“Focus,” they both say at the same time.

“It makes you look like you got lost on a school tour.”

Veronica smiles as Dani places both palms on my desk and leans closer. “Phillip Briarwood is in love with you.”